Kurdish Question Research Articles

Post-conflict Urban Renewal as an Ethnocratic Regime Practice: Racialized Governance of Redevelopment in Diyarbakir, Turkey

This paper explores the governance of a state-led urban renewal project in a politically contested area in the aftermath of a major armed conflict. Building on the ethnocratic regime theory, we explore the governance of the urban renewal process in the historic district of Suriçi by focusing on the political, spatial, and governmental underpinnings of displacement and dispossession in the context of the unresolved “Kurdish Question” of Turkey. We argue that this exclusionary and state-led urban renewal project is shaped around the ethnocratic state interests with limited real estate returns that aims to sanitize and dehistoricize the historic core of Diyarbakir given its political and socioeconomic significance for the Kurdish Movement. The rhetorical formation of a “renewed” historic core epitomizes the racialized governance that intensifies the race-class realities sitting at the center of the decades-old ethnic conflict in Turkey. The central government authority's use of gentrification in practice illustrates the ethnocratic regime's spatial, political, and economic repercussions for the Kurdish population as the country's largest ethnic minority. Suriçi‘s redevelopment illustrates that ethnocratic regime practices coexist with a democratic façade and militarization activates an ethnocratic urban regime. Our findings contribute to the literature on space and power by illustrating the incompleteness and paradoxical elements of settler-colonial urbanism.

Poetics of modernity and nationalism: Revisiting the emergence of modern Kurdish poetry

AbstractThe emergence of modern Kurdish poetry marks a period of great significance in the history of Kurdish literature since it witnessed the advent of modernity, the rise of Kurdish nationalism, the fall of the Persian and Ottoman Empires, and the creation of the Middle East with no country for Kurds. In this article I examine the complex process of the poetic modernisation which unfolded over the oeuvres of generations of poets from the late 19th century till its culmination in the 1940s. I illustrate that modern Kurdish poetry was an aesthetic response to the advent of modernity and its socio‐political implications such as nationalism in Kurdish society.

Turkey and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Relations: A Soft Power Approach towards Kurdish Question

Turkey has long regarded Kurds as a homogenous entity that could threaten its territorial integrity and national security. There is ‎animosity by the Turkish government towards the Kurds. ‎This article attempts to analyze why there has been a paradigm shift and enhancement in Turkey-KRG relations, especially during AKP tenure, while analyzing the extent to which the ‎effectiveness of the Turkey-KRG relationship can help Turkey resolve its Kurdish ‎issue in peaceful ways. This research uses offensive realism as an analytical tool while deploying qualitative methods through ‎explanatory and descriptive approaches in answering the problems raised. The ‎study shows that the paradigm shift and the enhancement in Turkey-KRG relations can occur because Turkey seeks to pursue its goal, ‎being a regional hegemon. In this way, Turkey can guarantee its survival, increase ‎welfare, and preserve its political doctrine. However, the enhancement of Turkey-‎KRG relations shows less significant effectiveness in overcoming the Kurdish ‎issue. As the Kurdish question is a domestic issue, it is Turkey itself that must find ‎a solution‎ to

Sovereignty and Developmental Policies in Palestine and Eastern Kurdistan

Inspired by the scholarship on Palestine studies and particularly by Sara Roy’s “de-development” theory, this paper investigates how the sovereign ethno-nation in Iran instrumentalizes and distorts development to subjugate the minoritized Kurdish nation. Along with contextualizing de-development theory within the broader discipline of developmental studies and outlining how de-development works in practice, we compare the political-economic conditions of Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan/Iran) with those of Palestine to underscore the key similarities and differences between these two cases.

The Political Function of Religion in Kurdish and Perso-Iranian Nationalist Confrontations after the 1979 Revolution

Abstract During the early years (1979–1982) following the 1979 revolution, because of the prevalence of a traditional society, religion was politically more functional. Religious discourse became hegemonic and most groups, including secularists, were forced to use such a discourse to promote their politics. The Persian politicians used Islam to make Perso-Iranian nationalism dominant over others, while non-Persian politicians appealed to it to gain their ethno-national rights. Using Qualitative Content Analysis to analyse the scattered texts of speeches, interviews, messages of the Persian and Kurdish leaders published in different publications at the time (which are available in some archives and databases), this article describes how they use religion in their confrontations. The findings show both marginalisation and resistance against it appealing to Islamic discourse. Ignoring those parts of Islam that are not in their interest, the Persian nationalists use Islamic brotherhood and unity to reinforce Islamic identity over Kurdish identity in order to marginalise the Kurdish nationalist movement, as well as to mobilise ordinary people against the Kurdish forces. Conversely, the Kurdish nationalists resist, and demand equality as Muslim brethren. In this regard, while religion has uniting, mobilizing and legitimating functions for the Persian government, enabling it to pursue nationalistic aims and to justify relevant measures, it also partly has a legitimating one for the Kurdish opposition.

Never Mind Betrayal: America's Indifference to the Kurds is a Strategic Blunder

Although they have proven themselves to be loyal and capable U.S. partners, America has refused to endorse either independence for Iraqi Kurds or autonomy for Syrian Kurds. That policy has been academically underscored by several Realism-based concepts including an offshore balancing approach to the Middle East. This paper argues that America can adjust to new realities in the region without having to forsake its worthwhile Kurdish partnerships. I first compare and contrast the costs of American support for Kurds and then refute the notion that Kurdish independence in Iraq or autonomy in Syria would cause instability or be nonviable. I then recount recent Kurdish actions that have benefited America and argue that the subsequent U.S. capitulations to Baghdad and Ankara were unnecessary and strategically short-sighted. Lastly, I examine America's relationship with Turkey to discern if it merits impeding U.S. Kurdish policy. This paper concludes that America's endorsement of independence in Iraqi Kurdistan and perpetual autonomy in Northeast Syria would not be merely altruistic, but primarily a realpolitik reassertion of U.S. geopolitical strategy.

The Kurds in the U.S. Iraqi Policy in 1958–1960

Introduction. The article deals with the U.S. Middle East Policy of the Eisenhower Administration in 1958–1960 and determines the part the Kurdish Question played in it. Methods and materials. The study is based on the latest U.S. declassified documents, interviews, memoirs, etc. The author does the problem-chronological analysis to describe the stages of the U.S. Policy toward Iraqi Kurds during the period specified. Analysis. The article is focused on the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence activities aimed at developing approaches to the “communist crisis” and disagreements that arose in the expert community regarding policy decisions. The author considers the U.S. relations with their regional partners (Turkey, Israel, Iran, etc.) on the issues of the “Iraqi crisis” and the Kurdish liberation movement. The paper describes Washington’s attitude to Mullah Mustafa Barzani – the Kurdish movement leader – and the KDP activities during Iraq’s post-Revolution instability. The author analyzes and summarizes the reasons why the U.S. was reluctant to involve in the domestic conflict between Qasim’s followers, Nationalists, Nasserites, Communists and Kurds. Results. The article shows that the CIA and the State Department often misjudged Qasim’s relationship with the Iraqi Communist Party and the national Kurdish movement and, as a result, did not have enough time to respond to the rapidly changing political situation, thus adopting the policy of benevolent neutrality.

Internal, Regional and International Distances of Adherence of Kurdish Regional to Arabic Iraqi

The consequences of WW1 ‎1914-1918 have repucations on south Kurdistan. Research question is the central question of the study that focus on what is impact on Kurdish society at that time. The aims researh demonstrate unclear aspects on isolation of southern Kurdistan. At That time the case in the framework of Mousl state between Britain and Iraqi state in one hand and Turkey in another hand is settled in benefit of the Iraq and Britain. This case is relevant with some internal and international motives. The internal ones: the case of Kurdish Nationalism, religions approach , the scattered speech of Kurdish and geographical situations while in terms of regional and international motives the secret agreement during war , oil and economy of Kurdistan ,the balancing of ethnic and religions of Iraq and the beneficiaries and capitalism of Europe has played a key role . This investigation has centered on the entire case and it’s potential of final decision of group of nations.

Winston Churchill’s Middle Eastern Strategy and the Idea of a Kurdish Buffer State, 1921–1922

This study investigates Churchill’s attitude towards the Kurdish question and explains how and why the idea of a Kurdish buffer state initially formed as part of Churchill's Middle Eastern strategy before ultimately being abandoned. It primarily focuses on the role of behind-the-scene officials in influencing and directing the policy decisions towards the future of Kurdistan. It argues that the contention between the Colonial Office and Baghdad did not reflect as much disagreement between Churchill and the High Commissioner of Baghdad Percy Cox, as previous works have suggested, as between their advisers, particularly Hubert Young, Assistant Secretary in the Middle East Department, and Gertrude Bell, Oriental Secretary at Baghdad. This study argues that behind the scenes, Young and Bell exerted great influence over the views of Churchill and Cox, respectively. Young’s standpoint in favour of Kurdish independence influenced Churchill’s initial advocacy of a Kurdish buffer state to protect British colonial interests in the Middle East. However, Bell was ultimately fundamental in determining the future of Kurdistan, contributing significantly to the absence of Kurdistan from the political map. She was at the core of British imperial policymaking for the Iraqi state through her significant influence over Cox regarding the political situation in Iraq. Facilitated by Churchill’s indecision, Bell was successful in obstructing the implementation of the ethnographic approach advocated by the Cairo Conference, and finally, in preventing the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, instigating the perpetual complexity of the Kurdish question.

Land Reform and Kurdish Nationalism in Postcolonial Iraq

: This article revisits the origins of Kurdish nationalism in Iraq, problematizing the narrative, shared by nationalists and scholars alike, that presents the 1961–1975 insurgency solely as a moment of national awakening. Placing the Kurdish revolt within the social and political conflicts of postcolonial Iraq reveals its strong connection to the Iraqi Revolution of 1958. The early stages of the 1961 revolt must be understood as a reaction of the Kurdish landed class against the post-revolutionary land reform policy and the empowerment of the peasantry. The Kurdish tribal and landowning elite successfully turned its revolt into a national revolution by forcing progressive urban nationalists into a position of subordination and demobilizing the peasantry, formerly the backbone of the anticolonial movement. The hegemonic position of the landed class, won in 1961, had long-term consequences on the development of Kurdish nationalism in Iraq determining its conservative character and the persistent marginalization and depoliticization of the subaltern classes.

Kurds, Jews, and Kurdistani Jews: Historic Homelands, Perceptions of Parallels in Persecution, and Allies by Analogy

This article highlights the positive relations between the Jewish and the Kurdish nations, maintained mainly by Kurdistani Jews until their displacement to Israel in the mid-20th century. These positive relations have been transmitted through their oral traditions, documented by both communities and travelers to Kurdistan, and validated by several scholars who studied the Jews of the region, Kurdistan, and Jewish-Kurdish relations. The dearth of historical documentation of both societies has resulted in a ‘negative myth’ used by the enemies of the Kurds and the Jews to dehumanize them before the 20th century, and therefore delegitimizing their right to statehood in modern times. From the 16th century onward, there is more solid evidence about the Kurdistani Jews and their relations with Kurdish neighbors. There are considerable and certain parallels between the two nations in terms of their oral traditions as well as linguistic and literary practices. The historical ties between the Jews and their neighbors in Kurdistan formed a fruitful ground for the relations between the Jewish people of Israel and the Kurds since 1948. Despite the exodus of almost the entire Kurdistani Jewish population to the State of Israel, Kurdistani Jews have largely retained their identity, culture, and traditions and have effectively influenced Israel’s policy towards the Kurds. The often-secret relations between the Kurdish movement in Iraq and Israel since 1960 played an important role in the global security policy of the Jewish nation in the Middle East, and in effect served to keep Baghdad from becoming involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict on one hand, and allowed the Kurdish liberation movement in Southern/Iraqi Kurdistan to survive on the other. These ties were reinforced by the sense of a common fate and struggle for statehood, persecution and genocides, feeling of solidarity, mutual strategic interests, humanitarian and economic dimensions, in post-1988 Halabja Massacre, the operation of the US led coalition against Iraq in 1991, and 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Since the Arab Spring, the military interventions against the self-proclaimed caliphate, Islamic State (IS), and the referendum for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq in 2017, this relationship allegedly has extended to include the relationships between Israel and the Kurds in Western/Syrian and Eastern/Iranian Kurdistan as well. Notably, Israel was the only state that publicly supported the creation of an independent Kurdish state. With all the development the Kurdish question has paved in the 21st century, the article concludes that the majority of the Kurds of the 21st century can be described as a ‘pariah people’ in Max Weber’s definition and meditation of the term and Hannah Arendt’s ‘rightless’, who ‘no longer belong to any community’, while describing the different aspects of the political, economic, and cultural calamity of Jews, refugees, and stateless people at the beginning of the 20th century.

Soundscapes and borderscapes: Music as a counter‐mapping discourse in the Kurdish nationalist movement

AbstractThis article traces the ways in which Kurdish claims to national rights and borders have been structured around transnational and virtual spaces to coalesce into music. It focuses on issues such as migration, diaspora, border, ethnicity, transnationalism, and nation‐building through Kurdish music and Kurdish musicians. The concept of the borderscape provides a theoretical lens through which to understand how music has been politicized and positioned between the non‐existence of a Kurdish nation‐state and the enduring existence of Kurdish as an ethnicity, a language, and a homeland in the Middle East. By giving examples from songs, lyrics, and the virtual world of Kurdish music, the study elaborates on how Kurds reinforce the territorial imagination of ‘Kurdistan’ as the rightful homeland of a Kurdish nation. Focusing on music as a resource for political action, nationalism, and for the identification of national borders, this study thus adds to the border studies and ethnomusicological literatures by linking music to ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism.

Turkish Islam and Kurdish difference

In this article I discuss the ways in which the Turkish state uses Islam as a weapon to delegitimize and render unnecessary Kurdish distinctiveness and associated rights claims. Drawing on the particular discourse employed by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a series of political rallies in Diyarbakır, the symbolic capital of Turkish Kurdistan, I highlight key patterns in the instrumentalization of religion to maintain Turkish dominance. The Kurdish question as it is experienced by Kurds of Turkey, contrary to expectations, is not at all a matter of “discrimination” and “otherization.” Rather, the Kurdish problem arises from a lack of recognition of the Kurds as a separate self.

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Ethnopolitics to geopolitics: the Turkish State and the Kurdish question since 2015

ABSTRACT Reviewing the Turkish state’s engagement with the Kurdish question since 2015, I argue that while the Turkish state tackled with the Kurdish question mainly through ethnopolitics, it now tackles with it mainly through geopolitics. Documenting the Turkish state’s recent engagement with the Kurdish question by means of such new instruments as non-temporary control over non-Turkish territories populated or neighboured by Kurds, replacing the functions of the states of Syria and Iraq on their Kurdish (and Arab) populated territories, and utilizing space and population engineering to contain non-Turkish citizen Kurds, I argue that the Turkish state’s preoccupation with the Kurdish question since 2015 is prevailed by geopolitics.

ORDER VS JUSTICE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

This article analyzes the Kurdish question in the Middle East from the English School perspective in international relations. The central argument is that the international community consistently deals with the Kurdish question through the principle of order rather than justice. It has respected the sovereignty of those nation‐states hosting the Kurds rather than protecting the Kurdish population from grave human rights violations. Consequently, the Kurds have failed to achieve a semblance of autonomy, let alone independence. However, I argue that while the implementation of the no‐fly‐zone over northern Iraq in 1991 by the international community is a case for justice, it is not necessarily a case against the principle of order. In other words, the international community only dealt with the Kurdish issue using the principle of justice when implementing the 1991 no‐fly‐zone—but, notably, this was not against the principle of order.

The Red Army in Iran: between Iranian nationalism and Kurdish separatism (1941—1946)

The Red Army in Iran: between Iranian nationalism and Kurdish separatism (1941—1946)

Framing Syrian refugees in Turkish politics: a qualitative analysis on party group speeches

ABSTRACT Asylum is at the core of political discussions in Turkey. The country has rapidly turned into the world’s largest host state in less than a decade, despite a long tradition of excluding non-Western refugees. Existing studies shed light upon the government’s policy choices, which have fluctuated between a generous welcome and a hasty restriction. However, despite declining electoral support towards Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), few studies examine how other political parties approach Syrian refugees. How do different political parties in Turkey frame Syrian refugees and what are the reasons behind alternative framings? A qualitative content analysis on party group speeches between 2011 and 2019 is conducted to answer this research question. Findings indicate that political identities are significant in shaping refugee governance more so than well-established policy choices on the subject matter. Political identities have led to different framings on Syrian refugees by Islamic Neo-Ottomans and secular modernizers, on the one hand, and by Turkish and Kurdish nationalists, on the other. Yet, identity-related explanations also have their limits. The AKP’s Neo-Ottoman embracing of Muslim brothers from former Ottoman territories have faded with changes in the domestic and international context since 2016. The Turkish nationalists, in contrast, toned down their opposition after aligning with the ruling AKP within the new presidential regime introduced in 2018.

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: The EMASYA Protocol and Civil-Military Relations in Turkey

The civil-military relations literature on Turkey focuses predominantly on the guardianship role of the Turkish military, its interventions, and the role of the National Security Council as the main institutional mechanism of military tutelage. Yet, the existing studies lack a much-needed focus on the law enforcement or policing missions of the Turkish military. To fill this gap, this study discusses the EMASYA Protocol ( Emniyet Asayiş Yardımlaşma or Security and Public Order Assistance), a secret protocol signed in 1997. Emerging in the context of political instability and military tutelage of the 1990s, the Protocol enabled the military to conduct internal security operations without permission from the civilian authorities. This paper argues that the EMASYA Protocol provided a sphere of “reformulated new professionalism” for the Turkish military, enabled it to specialize in the war against rising internal threats such as reactionary Islam and Kurdish separatism, and created anomalies in civil-military relations in Turkey.

Space in the City’s Memory: An Example of Statues in Sulaymaniyah

Gardens, parks, and public artworks around the city of Sulaymaniyah are among the city’s most admired features. An important hallmark of these public spaces are the statues of famous historical personalities who are remembered for serving the city, particularly those who were martyred for the sake of the Kurdish nation and were important figures of the Kurdish revolution. Despite their significance to the history of Sulaymaniyah, these statutes and the public spaces in which they exist are being reshaped and removed, at worst destroyed, to make way for new developments in the city.